My Record
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Chairperson of the Nashoba Regional School Committee
I was elected to serve as the School Committee's Chairperson for the 2021-22 school year. In this capacity, I meet weekly with our Superintendent to review pressing matters and plan our bi-weekly business meetings which I facilitate.
In my facilitation of the business meetings, I have done my best to adhere to our revised School Committee Operating Protocols. One additional practice I have instituted is the avoidance of introducing and voting on an issue in a single meeting. This allows our constituents two weeks to consider the topic, do research, talk to neighbors and email the committee with support or concerns. When time allows, this practice contributes to an environment of collaboration and transparency.
As Chair, I am responsible for assigning our members to subcommittees. We have nine advisory/subcommittees on which School Committee members sit with many of us sitting on several depending on the needs of the committee. I made these assignments based upon individual preference but weighed alongside that, each individual's expertise and availability. I also conduct an annual goal-setting protocol at our summer workshop to create our Committee goals for the next school year.
After our summer retreat and at the request of our members, I took on the responsibility of planning professional development for the School Committee on Regional Budgeting to strengthen our capacity to manage this critical component of our job. I invited Tracy Novick of MASC to conduct a training for us in order to build our understanding of educational costs and available revenue streams within the process. We also held our annual public Budget Workshop where Superintendent Downing delivered additional training on MGL Chapter 70 funding, minimum local contribution by the state, and the logic of local variable tax assessments on families. Finally, we held our state mandated Budget Hearing so that the general public could understand the process and voice questions and concerns.
I am happy to say our School Committee voted unanimously in favor of our $62 million budget feeling confident that we and our community members understand the process and product better than ever before.
Strategic Planning Committee
I served on the Superintendent's Strategic Planning Committee in an effort to construct a new mission, vision and objections for our school district. The result was the 2022-2027 Nashoba Strategic Plan which acts as a roadmap to all school improvement initiatives.
Nashoba REgional High School Building Committee
I serve as the co-vice chairperson of the Nashoba Regional High School Building Committee. We meet monthly to oversee the construction for our new high school which was approved by voters in the summer of 2020 and again in the spring of 2023. In order to inform the community on the necessity of this project, I constructed this presentation and facilitated multiple community forums so that residents could better understand the vote they were being asked to take. In addition the SBC Communication Subcommittee, of which I am also a member, took on the responsibility of creating and maintaining the SBC Project Website to keep our residents apprised of the project as it progress through the multiple phases established by our state partner, the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
Regional Agreement Amendment Advisory Committee
I served as the chairperson this subcommittee tasked with amending the Nashoba Regional School District Regional Agreement which governs the financial and educational partnership between Bolton, Lancaster and Stow. In this capacity, I was responsible for bringing together a collection of representatives from our three towns to revise our outdated regional agreement in order to ensure compliance with current law and district practice. In addition, I regularly interfaced with representatives from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to ensure the revisions would remain acceptable to the Commissioner of Education. I then presented the final draft to the three towns of the Nashoba region at each Town Meeting in the spring of 2023. All three towns voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposed revisions.
Personnel Subcommittee
In January of 2021, our Superintendent resigned from her position. This required the Personnel Subcommittee to initiate a new Superintendent search. I volunteered to assist said committee by creating and maintaining our Superintendent Search website to maintain transparency and keep our residents informed on the process. In June of 2021, as the newly elected Chairperson of our School Committee, I was responsible for facilitating the public meetings during which our three finalists were interviewed. It was also my responsibility to negotiate the new Superintendent's contract on behalf of our School Committee. In June of 2021, it was my honor to welcome Mr. Kirk Downing as the new Superintendent for the Nashoba Regional School District. Here is my announcement to our Nashoba Staff.
I currently serve as chair of the Personnel Subcommittee. Our central responsibility is to help establish our Superintendent's Student Learning, Professional Practice and District Improvement goals. This was completed in October of 2021. The formative assessment of progress made is conducted at the mid-year point and the summative assessment of progress made is conducted in May. Afterward, as the chair, I am responsible for writing a synthesized report of the School Committee's evaluation that can be delivered to the public at the end of the school year. We then repeat that goal-setting protocol based upon the written evaluation.
In April, I, along with the other two officers of the School Committee, will participate in the Strategic Planning process responsible for using the findings of the Superintendent's Entry Report shared in the formative assessment to build out a five-year Strategic Plan for all Nashoba Schools.
In addition, the Personnel Subcommittee has planned and facilitated trainings for the School Committee on Superintendent Evaluation. I am very familiar with this process as it is the same evaluation tool used to assess my performance as an educator. We also enlisted a free consultant from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees to augment our in-house offerings.
Negotiations Subcommittee
I am a sitting member of the Negotiations Subcommittee. We just completed the most recent round of contract negotiations with our Unit A and Unit C staff members. The contract was adopted by the Nashoba Regional Education Association and our School Committee by unanimous vote.
In May of 2022, our subcommittee will reopen negotiations for the next three-year contract using the method of Interest Based Bargaining. All participants will undergo training starting next month to engender trust and ensure the process is focused on doing what is best for our students.
Policy Subcommittee
As the former chair and now rank-and-file member of the this subcommittee, I have participated in the policy adoption and amendment process for many parts of our policy manual. Notable examples include Public comment policy, fiscal policy, school visitor policy, residency policy, student representative to the School Committee policy, Diversity, Equity, Acceptance and Racial Justice (DEARJ) initiatives, and various pandemic-related policies. You can read my most recent statement on Masking Policy here.
One of our goals this year is to work with DEARJ and MASC to identify and rectify any policy that does not adhere to our statement on racial justice, equity, inclusion and belonging.
Nashoba MAscot Change
In the summer of 2020, the Nashoba Regional School Committee voted unanimously to retire its long-standing mascot, the Chieftain. It was my opinion then, as it is now, that the process was rushed and didn't give members of the community or Committee ample time to process and deliberate. In the wake of that vote, I wanted to help the community understand why it was ultimately the right decision, despite the flawed process. I created this padlet to share all the evidence we weighed in the decision making. Although there were many alumni who disagreed with the decision, the Nashoba community today has wholeheartedly embraced this change. As a matter of fact, our student representative to the School Committee reported in November of 2021 that the Wolf is a unifying symbol that allows all students to celebrate their school spirit without feeling as if they are appropriating another culture.